March 20, 2012

Of all the damage I see during the tornado season, it is photos like this, of a little girl, from Dexter, MI, clinging what little bit of the normalcy she is use to, after the damage is done. Having kids of my own, I get teared-up when I see scenes like this and is maybe I am compelled to shoot photos like this.

January 02, 2012

64 Gig Verizon Black iPad 2 for Sale...comes with a Gumdrop iPad cover, box and original charger. Bought for $829, plus $70 for the case, looking to get $775 obo - E-mail me at detrichpix@aol.com if interested. Also selling a Canon XH-A1s on ebay, check out the sale HERE.

July 28, 2011

I went to Tiffin today to deliver a present to Wyatt for his fourth birthday. I was snapping a few photos of all the kids when Bishop, the youngest decided to play hide-n-seek with the curtains as I shot his photo. I later looked through the take on my iPhone and saw a really scary photo, if I did not know better. Bishop had pulled the curtain over his face and his features showed through the fabric like something I once saw in a horror flick.

July 24, 2011

I have been a photographer for all of my life, I have taken easily MILLIONS of photos over my career, but my one pet peeve is having a photo taken of me. I might chalk this up to being a big guy all of my life and an even bigger guy in the past few years. Fifteen years ago or so I was big like I was last year and lost a great deal of weight and got down to 250 pounds, yes down to 250.

Over the last fifteen years I have crept back up to my BIG self again. I have always been called "Big Guy", or "Big Al, or Big A" or whatever. To go way back, I weighed 80 pounds in kintergarden, and was hauled into the principals office when in first grade for taking on a sixth grader who called me fatty, I had him on the ground and was sitting on him ready to strike when Mr. Schneider pulled me off and directed me to the office. I got off without too much punisment since it was in "Self Defence".

As I grew up my size became an advantage, I was much taller than most of the kids in my class, bigger and pretty smart. I became sought after for the football team and on the track team, I threw shot-put and discus and was the anchor on the tug-of-war team, (we never lost). I blew a knee while screwing around jumping hurdles my Junior year in High School and had to sit out my senior year of football, pretty much forefiting any scholarship possibilities I had for after I graduated. I decided to wrestle my senior year and in the heavyweight class I weighed between 300-20, I won 40 matches by pins and lost just two.

I credit my love of photography to come out of the loss of a football career in college, so I decided to do something I love instead of playing sports.

Throughout my photography career, my size has been an advantage and a curse. I have used my size to stand my ground in many hairy situations and it has helped me survive many riot-type situations while shooting. But, the weight has held me back and made it hard for me to have the stamina to keep up a 100% pace while shooting something that required alot of physical activity and walking. I sometimes had to give up on shooting some things just because I was physically too big, or it would really hurt my knee. I has an operation in 1996 that removed all of the cartlidge in my right knee.

So since then, I have been less active, gained weight, and the weight gain, made my knee hurt worse, it was a vicious cycle. That kinda brings me to the beginning of this year. What made it click in my brain that I had to loose weight, I have no idea. I was out of breath all of the time, had sleep apnea, would sit on the couch and make my son go get things for me because it was so dificult for me to get up. My vicious cycle was coming to an end quickly if I did not do something, and fast. One night I was on the computer chatting with my friend Chris Howell, who told me he had been dieting and had lost 10 pounds, he was doing great. I told him I would like to join him and began my diet the first of the year (2011). I found an app for my iPhone 4 called Lose It! I started using the app on January 5th, 2011, and have not missed loggong my food one day since then. That was 105 pounds ago! This app has a support website at www.loseit.com and it is free, (the app and website), you can use both or either the app, or the website.

So as I go into my weigh-in tomorrow, I present you and the world with a photo of me, taken by my lovely wife Mary Bower. I am holding two 50 pound bags of dog food. Their weight just shy of my total weight loss since Jan. 5th. I will be honest with you, I just don't know how I did it. I carried just one bag in and had trouble getting up the back steps, let alone two. Let alone carrying these two bags on our nightly, mile walk. The last few times, I have been jogging the first 1/4 mile of our walk. I am amazed at the energy and stamina I now have just compared to the first of the year. I have lost over 10 inches off my waist and all of my shirts are baggy on me now. With the Lose It! app, I am simply logging all the calories I eat, and the exercise I do. When I first began this process I could not believe the number of calories I WAS eating. This app makes you take a good hard look at the reality of food and how to get the most bang for your buck. You can eat anything you want, but just a certain amount.

My app says I will reach my goal of loosing 125 more pounds next October, so until then, he is to eating healthy...

July 22, 2011

You know that photo that fires off sometimes when you pick up your camera and usually looks like crap, or is a photo of your feet? Well, I happened to accidently snapped this shot this evening on the way out the door to shoot an assignment, this just proves shit happens...

July 21, 2011

It was a scorcher here in Fremont, Ohio today and this week in general. It topped out at 100 today and felt like 110. We spent most of the day at the pool today and then I took my son Noah to the local ice cream shop for a cool treat but the heat had something to say about that for sure...

June 08, 2011

Caught this photo of a teen helping re-raise the flag at a demolished home in Joplin, Mo. after a brisk wind caused the flag to fall. The spirit of the people in Joplin is pretty high and all seem to be coping well after the EF 5 tornado tore through their town leveling a great deal of the city. Click HERE to see my Flickr photos of the devastation.

May 26, 2011

I chased into Indiana and Western Ohio yesterday and got some crazy cloud structure near Greenville, Indiana and near my favorite, Van Wert, Ohio. I was on several tornado warned storms and you can see my whole shoot HERE.

May 23, 2011

I caught a tornado tonight just South of Van Wert, Ohio looking south on SR 127. The leading edge of the tornado is visible, but the back end was rain wrapped. The death toll for the tornado that hit Joplin, Missouri yesterday is up to 116, with search and rescue still continuing.

May 22, 2011

The Springfield-Greene County Office of Emergency Management has said at least 24 people are dead after a tornado tore through Joplin, MO. around 6 p.m. Saturday. National Weather Service Meteorologist Mike Griffin has said that Joplin was directly hit by a tornado that touched down in the center of the town. Jasper County Emergency Management Director Keith Stammer said the St. John's Regional Medical Center on the city's south side took a "direct hit." Witnesses said windows were blown out on the top floors of the hospital. Cora Scott, a spokeswoman at the hospital's sister facility said patients were being evacuated to other area hospitals. Missouri National Guard Maj. Tammy Spicer said more than 100 members of the 35th Engineer Brigade, which has a battalion based in Joplin, were expected to immediately report for duty to aid in search and rescue efforts, clear roads, provide security and help with radio communications. The guard's armory in Joplin suffered only minor damage but was without electricity Sunday night, Spicer said. One of the challenges facing the guard was simply getting in touch with all of its members in the area, she said.

May 11, 2011

We drove South from our overnight stay in Valentine, Nebraska to the small Kansas town of Colby. We found a cheap but nice motel and executed our BBQ plan flawlessly. My brother Matt manned the grills along with the help of Chris Howell and Niccolo Ubalducci from Italy. The beef was quickly consumed and some adult beverages consumed. As of right now the SPC day 1 outlook shows a 10% hatched chance for tornadoes and a whole lot of chase fun...

May 10, 2011

We had a long day of playing hurry-up and wait with almost every major name in storm chasing in the country. Reed Timmer, Joel Taylor, Tony Laubach, Tim Samaras, Jim Leonard, Roger Hill, Verene Carlson, Mike Umschied, Adam Lucio and many more were there waiting with no less than 100 other storm chasers from all over the world. The day did not produce what was expected, but it was a nice social day for all of the chasers. I met one of my FaceBook friends from England, Vicki Redwood, and many others for the first time. We caught some night time structure, lightning and a wall cloud north of Pine Ridge, South Dakota. We will be taking tomorrow to drive to Kansas after overnighting in Valentine, Nebraska to set up for Wednesday and a already forecast moderate risk.

May 08, 2011

Our group MESO all hooked up today in Kansas City, Missouri, by plane truck and rental car and then proceeded to our "Aunt Meg's" house for our annual BBQ dinner. The Italian Storm Chase Team also met up with us for the second consecutive year for our chase. We set a target in lower Nebraska and headed out for a 350 mile jaunt to Grand Island, Nebraska. We saw some incredible lenticular type clouds on the way, and some clouds I can't name, but I can show them to you in photos. They looked to be twisting sideways, with lines in the bizarre formations. If anyone has idea what they are, please leave a comment. We will see what tomorrow brings...

One of the bizarre twisting clouds we saw on the way to Grand Island, NE.

May 07, 2011

Members of Disaster Relief Service International clean up the property of the Temple Christian Fellowship Church in Bridgeton, MO.

Today my chase partner Chris Howell and my brother Matt Detrich traveled through the damage path of the 04/22/11 tornado that did significant damage to the town of Bridgeton, MO and the St. Louis Lambert Field airport. Click HERE to see a slideshow of the photos. We are overnighting in Kansas City, MO and will meet up with the rest of the MESO group tomorrow and then head out to Kansas to get into position for some possible weather on Sunday. We are also joined by three Italian storm chasers, (yes from Italy), and will once again enjoy the company of Niccolo Ubalducci and Valentina Abinanti and their friend Michael. We will be picking up Nancy Bose and Joe Falci at the KC airport tomorrow and Matt Kassawara will be driving in from Lawrence, KS.

Chris Howell looks at a twisted I-beam in the damage path of the EF-4 tornado in Bridgeton, MO.

May 04, 2011

L-R, Jim Ellis celebrates with his wife Marlene Ellis, Michelle Cummings, Jim Sherck, and Kellie Sears after results of the election are announced at the victory party in the Ellis Law Offices.

For the last several months I have had the privilege of working on the election campaign of Jim Ellis for Mayor of Fremont in the Democratic primary. With alot of hard work and miles put on his feet going door to door, Jim was victorious over his opponent Jim Nalley by a 65% to 35% margin. Tis is an amazing feat, considering this is the first office Jim has ever run for, and the fact that Jim Nalley is a siting Fremont city councilman and a lifetime politician. Maybe the last reason I sited was part of the downfall of Jim's opponent. Jim Ellis stands for change in Fremont and is not afraid to take a stand for the right side of an issue, even if it might be an unpopular one with the good old boy network. Fremont is on its way to change, now we are onward and upward to the race for Mayor in the general election in November.

Jim Ellis thanks his campaign workers with his wife Marlene and Jim Sherck

May 03, 2011

With the help of Cathy from G-Form, I now have in my hot little hands one of their newest products to protect my iPad for my upcoming storm chase into the plains, before its official release. The G-Form iPad Extreme Sleeve™ protects your iPad or iPad2 from impact by utilizing RPT-Reactive Protection Technology, a combination of PORON® XRD™ material and proprietary G-Form design and manufacturing. The Extreme Sleeve™ is water-resistant, soft, flexible, lightweight and changes its molecular structure on impact. Cathy tells me it is a bit of miracle molecular manipulation that makes the sleeve so impact resistant. They have a bunch of great products and I recommend a visit to their website.

Tweleve years ago, I was in Oklahoma City shooting photos of the aftermath of the May 3rd, 1999 F5 tornado that hit most Norman, Midwest City, OKC, Mulllhull, Bridgecreek and other small towns around the OKC area. The tornado outbreak killed 48 people, and spawned 66 tornadoes that day. If I had looked back at this event a month ago, it was a holy crap event in my mind, but as I look back on it today, I think, what was the big deal when I compare it to the tornado outbreak a week ago in Alabama and the South. Not to diminish 05/03/99, but when you compare numbers, 04/27/11 were more than four times greater, four times!!! Lets all remember the victims for years to come, and may we never forget to pay attention to, and take action when you have a weather warning in your area. Your life depends on it!

May 02, 2011

Jim Ellis out meeting with the people, getting and sharing ideas for the future of Fremont, Ohio.

I have had the pleasure to work on the election campaign of Jim Ellis. I have know Jim for years, Our sons are best friends, our wives and kids go skiing in the winter. I find Jim a honest, and trustworthy man (who I do trust with the life of my child, ha) on those nights Noah sleeps over with Oliver. Jim Ellis has a B.I.G plan for the revitalization of Fremont, don't just take my word for it, take a look at all the Letters to the Editor from the people of Fremont who share my feelings about Jim. Jim Ellis has sought to bring the workings of our City Council out from back-room politics into the open. When he asked to get the agendas and minutes posted online, he was told, "It would be too expensive", and was brushed off by the current administration. Being Jim Ellis, he took the matter into his own hands and did it himself, for little or no money. This is why Fremont, Ohio needs Jim Ellis. He is not a part of the "Good Old Boys Club" and not a self-proclaimed "Full-time Politician" like his opponent. Why elect the the "Same Old, Same Old"? It is time for a change, and that means electing Jim Ellis on May 3rd in the Democratic Primary election for Mayor of Fremont, Ohio.

I am primarily a Republican voter and I am going to ask for a Democratic ticket on Tuesday so I can cast a vote for Jim Ellis and the future of Fremont. I encourage others to do the same! - Allan Detrich

From my Wife...

Accountability is a key factor for economic growth. It is not a coincidence that the population of Fremont as fallen by 3.7%. Our complacency with the status quo is to blame. It is because of Jim Ellis’ responsible citizenship that we are now aware of the culture of disrespect on city council for its citizens. A vote for Jim Ellis in the democratic primary election for is a vote for accountability. - Mary Bower

Jim Ellis working tirelessly on his campaign in hopes he can serve the city of Fremont as Mayor.

Want more of the same? Vote for Jim Ellis' opponent, it's YOUR choice!